Roof of Africa: ‘The Young and the Fearless’

Wade Young (Sherco Racing) won the Motul Roof of Africa for the fourth time in Lesotho last weekend. He’s only in his early 20s and fast becoming a Roof legend.

He’s also now an internationally recognised rider – at the time of writing was in Israel – but has never forgotten his Paddock roots and still loves to be back home, with local support.

The winner was never really going to be in any doubt when he blazed away on day one and never looked back.

He has a great love and respect for this race, firstly as a past champion having won it when he was 16, and also having come a cropper a few times.

While the threatening rain didn’t come, water did play a role, especially on the second and final day.

Young sacrificed almost half his overnight lead over Travis Teasdale (Beta) by being cautious at several of the river crossings.

In some cases he dismounted and waded through the water to assess its depth before choosing his lines.

Young won in a time of 14:47:28 and by 23 minutes from the runner-up.

He described the race as ‘gruelling, super-tough and a really physical event’.

It was a Paddock 1-3 this year with Kyle Flanagan (Bidvest bLU cRU Yamaha) on the podium, producing his best race at the Roof and showing signs he could be a winner one day.

He’s never been in the top 10 before and when he got lost and crashed during the time trials it looked like more of the same.

However, he showed tremendous grit to claw his way through the pack from tenth to third place.

“It was a real dogfight on the last day but I managed to edge out the other guys and so am extremely happy with my result,” he said.

Another emerging South Coast rider sparked interest, namely 17 year-old Kayde Mante ((RBS Yamaha and Yamalube) of Shelly Beach, who won the silver division in his first attempt, riding a 125cc bike.

Mante described the race as a learning curve of note and thoroughly enjoyed it.

When he got high-sided off quite a big drop and hurt his arm, he didn’t seem too bothered.

His father Deon, who helped the seconding team, said it was nerve-wrecking.

Stuart Gregory, a nut farmer from Port Edward, completed his 12th Roof, something he was pleased with.

“I had a pretty slow start, getting lost in the time trial,” he said with a wry grin.

He treated it more as a fitness run, with the much bigger Dakar coming up for him in Peru in a few weeks’ time.

He was especially impressed that all the South Coast riders finished the race without major incident. “It was tough, in your face hard riding,” he said.

Louis Boshoff was among the group of South Coast ‘Silver Bullets’ who went up early to join Ashley Thorne, the man responsible for setting up the course.

“We went to the top of Baboon’s Pass, which is basically just rocks. We also enjoyed time at some great value spectator spots, like Jockstrap Pass, which is basically like riding straight up a river bed,” he said.

“It was great to see Wade coming flying past,” he said.

Matt Langton was part of a contingent of Paddock farmers who had a whole lot of fun at the event.

“It certainly lived up to its name as the ‘mother of all enduros’,” he said.

Some of the South Coasters, like Langton, were on the bike for over 20 hours, in the searing heat.

“It tests your stamina toiling in the sun and you need to find strength from within, but it was a lot of fun and great to see all the coastal riders finish. Will definitely be going back again,” he said.

Jarryd Nash of Umtentweni echoed his thoughts.

“Roof was very much of a team effort, there was a troop of us that entered and we all managed to sneak across the finish line, which is so rare as there is so much that could go wrong in that race mechanically, physically and mentally,” he said. 

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